Who Funds NGO Monitor?

by Kevin Jon Heller

NGO Monitor loves to criticize progressive NGOs for a lack of transparency concerning their funding. A recent report, for example, predictably attacks Human Rights Watch for not identifying all of its donors, particularly those at last year’s fundraising event in Saudi Arabia:

HRW publishes the names and amounts provided by some of its donors,but others remain hidden. Although HRW claims to refuse funding from government organizations, Oxfam NOVIB, funded largely by the Dutch government, provided approximately $1 million in 2008. Since some HRW donors and their contributions are not listed, it is possible that other direct or indirect government funders are among them. A highly controversial HRW dinner held in May 2009 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that included members of the government Shura Council, has been described as a fundraising event.

Should HRW identify all of its donors and the amounts they have donated? Probably. But HRW is a model of transparency compared to NGO Monitor itself. Here, in its entirety, is the information NGO Monitor’s website provides about its funding:

That’s it. Notice that NGO Monitor provides no information about the amounts donated by the foundations. And notice that NGO Monitor only identifies “major” donors — others remain hidden. And since others remain hidden, it is possible that direct or indirect government funders are among them.

NGO Monitor’s annual report for 2008 — it has yet to publish one for 2009 — is no more illuminating. The report simply states that NGO Monitor received $433,500 in donations during 2008; it does not identify where those donations came from or the amounts donated.

I’m not the only one who has noted NGO Monitor’s complete lack of financial transparency. Recent editorials in the Jerusalem Post (written by a professor at Ben Gurion University) and Haaretz have made the same point. (Interestingly, the Jerusalem Post seems to have removed the editorial. Fortunately, you can find a cached version here.)

NGO Monitor is absolutely right: financial transparency is critically important. So who funds NGO Monitor? If Mr. Steinberg or Ms. Herzberg will be kind enough to send me a complete list of names and amounts, I will happily publish the information here.

On the topic of NGO funding, you were going to report back to us on an issue of HRW fundraising. I will paste the exchange to jog your memory:

Me:

Putting aside Professor Bernstein’s post, are your comfortable with
HRW going to Saudi Arabia and using its work vis-a-vis Israel or
Jewish entities in the US as the focus of its fund raising? …. I
think the point is using one’s work against Israel as a donation
argument in an Arabic country is very troublesome.

For example, pretend that HRW attended a right-wing event to raise
funs with the argument that they were �sticking it to the Arabs�
with their focus on women’s rights.

Prof. Heller:

I think that is a very fair question � and I appreciate the civil
tone in which you ask it. My answer depends on whether HRW is
even-handed in its fundraising. If it fundraises with progressive
Jews by highlighting its criticisms of Hamas, no. But if it is
one-sided, absolutely. I have an email into a friend at HRW to ask
precisely that question; I’ll report the results when I get them.

4.01.2010
at 10:41 pm EST NewSteam Dream

[edited for civility]

I did indeed hear back from my contact. He/she said that HRW wanted to rely on its public statements. So unfortunately I have nothing to add.

Why are you attacking me? I do not disagree with you on the topic of NGO monitor. You were nice enough to volunteer to check in on a question about HRW. I appreciate you doing that, and you seem to agree with me that the answer they gave you is deeply disturbing. Of course, you ruin it by lashing out at me over asking a simple question. Even you agreed that my question was legitimate and asked “in a civil tone.” I am sorry that you are disappointed in the answer that you got from HRW. But again, there is no need to lash out at me like a 2 year old who throws his toy down because his warm milk got cold.

4.04.2010
at 3:03 pm EST NewSteam Dream

I assumed your question was civil when you posted it here. I then assumed it was not when you repeated it on a post that had nothing to do with NGO Monitor. I will edit my response.

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